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Against the Grain Exploring the subtleties of couture lapels by Claire B. mid-'60s. The casual museum visitor might well overlook it, but I took a second look at a clever design feature of that outfit, and it set off a fascination in me that I've been pursuing ever since. The ensemble, shown in the drawing on O the facing page, features a short, doublebreasted jacket cut from a horizontally striped fabric. et front folds back to e:�.'pose the lapel, and the stripes on the lapel facing are parallel to the stripes on the jacket. But if the lapel facings had been cut traditionally, on the length\vise grain like the garment front, the stripes on the folded lapel would be vertical, interrupting the design. Obviously Ungaro broke with convention for the sake of his design and cut his facing on the crossgrain. On most ready-made garments and commercial patterns, jacket facings duplicate the grainline of the garment front and are cut so the lengthwise grain is parallel to the center front. Since discovering Ungaro's outfit, I've observed that many tailors and designers manipulate their lapel facings to achieve subtle but wonderful results that home sewers can easily duplicate . The variations usually involve shifting the grain of the facing and/or shaping the straight-cut facing edge to match a curved lapel. These manipulations are possible re- As gardless of the techniques you're using to construct a jacket front. It doesn't matter whether you're pad-stitching traditional hair canvas by hand, or fusing in the latest weft . insertion interfacing. (See Basics on p. 8 for more on fusing to grain-shifted lapels.) As you'll see, these ideas can be applied to any garment that has a fold-over front, not just to traditional tailored jackets based on men's suits. The garments we'll be looking at are all designer garments, ranging from top-of-the-line handcrafted couture to high quality fused readyto-wear. 44 you can see, the right jackShluf er n display in the Costume Court of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London there's an intri guing Ungaro outfit from the By merely rearranging the grain on the facings, striped garments with lapels can be made much more coherent and interesting. The following two designer jackets are not based on men's suits, and the samples were probably made by dressmakers, rather than tailors, in the couturier's workrooms. Grain-shift⎃㭨 lapels and A, the center front and the garment edge are parallel and they're both on the lengthwise grain. The lower drawing on the facing page shows how Ungaro located the grainline of the facing to be at right angles to the center front. If you're laying out similar pattern pieces, arrange the front first so the color bars are positioned the way you want, then lay out the facing as shown in the g, so that the stripes match. Ungaro's solution-In the garment at the V draw⎃ An example from YSL-An Yves Saint Laurentjacket from the Fall!Winter Rive Gauche Collection 1982-83 applies this idea to a slightly more complicated pattern. It's shown in the left-hand group of photos on p. 46, called panel A. This classic Spencer jacket is made from a medium-weight navy wool ottoman. The ottoman fabric has prominent cross ribs, so the crossgrain is to identify, and it's easy to see that the edge of the lapel facing is cut on the crossgrain. The garment center is on the lengthwise grain as usual, but the garment edge is not vertical as it was on the Ungaro e easy To duplicate this look on a similar pattern, xample. redraw the lapel grainline so it's perpendicular to the straight edge of the lapel. The lefthand sample in panel A shows a facing cut this way instead of traditionally, with the grain parallel to the center front. 'fhe righthand sample is yet another option; it's cut with the grain parallel to the lapel edge, which positions the crossgrain stripe perpendicular to the stripe on the front when the lapel is folded back. The ribs on the collar, too, blend beauti- fully with the ribs on the lapels. Traditionally, jacket collars are cut so that the center back is on the straight grain, parallel to the grain of the jacket's center back. This way, the stripe on a striped jacket can be made to match from collar to back. In the case of the Spencer jacket, the collar has been cut so that its center back is on the crossgrain, with the ribs running vertically, instead of horizontally, as on the jacket back. I'd guess that the collar was cut this way so that the ribs didn't cut across the shape of the collar edges, rather than to create the smooth transition at the lapel/collar seam, but both effects are pleasing, and justify the opposing grains at the back of the neck. Adding shape to sWfte lapels The remaining garments I'll describe are both derived from classic tailored menswear, and both were no doubt made originally by tailors in the designer's workrooms. In each case, the tailor's technique of shaping the lapel facing with an iron to match the curve cut into the garment front has been added to a careful decision about where to place the grain on the lapel. A cou ensemble exhibited In the Metropolitan Museum of Art's exhibition of his work (New York City, ture example from YSL-A ple of Yves Saint Laurent's consistent attention to detail; it's shown in panel B on p. 46. Designed for the F NY; catalog #203) is a good exam- tion 1982-83, it features a jacket made from a beige and khaki a skirt made from a companion houndstooth check. The jacket is all/W Prin houndstooth-check lapels which match the skirt; the check pattern is clearly parallel to the edge of the lapel, but you'll notice that the edge is not parallel to the center front. I have a duplicate of this gannent, so I trimm sections and make samples which show the pattern shapes and grainlines quite clearly; they're reproduced in panel B. The grainline on the jacket front is parallel to the center front, not the jacket edge, but the YSL-cut facing on the left is cut with the grainline parallel to the garment edge instead of along the lengthwise grain able to analyze the garment front and lapel was as usual, like the rightTh read Maga⎃㭨e inter Couture Collecce of Wales plaid with ed with daytime